1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to telephonic consoles used in automatic call distribution systems and, more particularly to such systems with message playback capability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Telephonic consoles of the type having a keyboard, display and status indicators used by service agents in fielding calls in an automatic call distribution system are well known to facilitate the handling of numerous different types of calls from different callers from an external telephonic network. Such ACD systems are often used in responding to callers from a telemarketing, advertising or other campaign in which different types of callers are automatically identified by virtue of a dialed number identification service, or DNIS, in which DNIS numbers identifying the different types of calls are transmitted to the ACD system automatically by the external telephonic network.
Because of the hundreds or thousands of calls answered by an agent in a single work shift, it is also known to provide in conjunction with such ACD systems means for a service agent to record a preannouncement voice message in their own voice which is selectively played back to callers to reduce wear on the agent's voice and to reduce tedium. Such a preannouncement message is only a few seconds in length and generally includes an identifying greeting, such as, "Thank you for calling ABC Company. How may I help you?"
In modern ACD systems, however, it is desired for a single agent to answer many different types of calls which are identified by different DNIS numbers. DNIS numbers are used to distribute only one type of call to each agent. In such a system, a single message is adequate, but in modern systems each agent receives multiple types of calls requiring different types of greetings. Disadvantageously, known preannouncers are capable of recording and playing back only one type of message.
In addition, in known preannouncers, the recorded preannouncement can only be used at the console at which it was recorded, and the message is recorded in a volatile memory which cannot be removed from the console. Consequently, each time the power is shut off at the console, the preannouncement recording is lost, and each new agent at a console must rerecord the preannouncement message in his own voice at the beginning of each shift.